This invention relates to improvements in yard hydrants and more particularly to an innovative form of construction and assembly not heretofore used.
Yard hydrants have long been used in water distribution systems and while they vary in details of construction for the common purpose of delivering a flow of water from a source of supply to a point of use, they all, in one form or another, include the common and traditional components of a head section, a valve housing for connection to a source of water supply under pressure, a standpipe connected to such section and housing and an operating rod with valve means reciprocating in the standpipe and valve housing to control water flow in a well known manner. Since it is necessary with the yard hydrant from time to time to remove the operating rod and attached valve parts for servicing and repairs, the traditional and currently used method by which past and present hydrant devices provide for such removal is to assemble the standpipe to the head section by threadable connections so that they can be disassembled for removal of internal parts. Since this form of assembly and disassembly has been effective for its intended purpose, it has been and is traditionally used although other changes and developments in the hydrant art have been made as exemplified in U.S. Pat. Nos. 353,739, 1,265,479, 2,649,111, 3,158,170 and 3,943,963.
In the highly competitive hydrant industry that exists today where there is a constant search for lower cost alternatives in hydrant construction and where minor reductions in cost of the finished product can become a formidable and valuable asset when mass production operatings are involved as they are in this field, I have found that the standpipe is one of the main components affecting the cost and selling price of the finished product because of a relatively high fixed cost component required in the cost of pipe having the necessary wall thickness required to accept threading and the necessary cost of threading not only both ends of the pipe but also the threading of the head section and the valve housing. Accordingly, it is one of the principal object of this invention to provide innovations in the construction and assembly of the yard hydrant that make it more simple, facile, economical and practical as compared with other past and present like devices.
More particularly, it is object herein to provide a yard hydrant in which the traditional separable components of a head section with a nozzle, a standpipe and valve housing are formed as an integral unit that cannot be disassembled and in which an opening in the head section portion receives a removable novel two piece packing gland unit that when removed, permits the quick and easy removal of internal parts for servicing and repairs.